A new psychodiagnostic tool for clients in rehabilitation settings: The MBHI.

Abstract

There are very few psychodiagnostic instruments for assessing the emotional stability, cognitive outlook, and coping style of clients seen in rehabilitation settings. Established clinical tools have been designed for psychiatric populations and are only tangentially relevant. Excellent recent instruments for rehabilitation populations tend to focus on overt behavioral indices or vocational aptitudes. To supplement these latter realms of functioning, the Millon Behavioral Health Inventory (MBHI), a 150-item self-report inventory, may be seen to provide measures relevant to the client's psychological outlook and prognosis. It also appears useful as a guide for treatment planning and psychological counseling. The rationale, development, and uses of the MBHI are briefly described, while the focus of each of the instrument's 20 scales is also outlined.The client with rehabilitation needs may enter the health care system with a physical, functional, and/or psychological problem. Although medically stabilized, at least in regard to life-threatening concerns such as postsurgical complications, the client is now beginning a long, arduous, and highly individualized recovery process. Clinical health psychologists (Millon, Green, & Meagher, in press) play a central role in all phases of this process-from diagnosis, to treatment planning, to direct work with the client in facilitating recovery.The responsibilities of this multifaceted role neither require that the psychologist discard familiar clinical skills or techniques nor transform himself or herself into a totally new professional. However, they do call for the use of assessment and treatment tools that are more relevant to rehabilitation populations than those in the standard clinical armamentarium. The psychologist should seek creatively to extend previously acquired competencies to fit these new responsibilities. One such skill, that of psychodiagnostic assessment in rehabilitation settings, is the focus of this article. Fulfilling the role of psychodiagnostician in this setting may require considerable ingenuity and flexibility, since the task calls for tools, concepts, and strategies other than those that psychologists are likely to have been trained to employ in conventional mental health settings.

Beyond unfavorable thinking: The Illness Cognition Questionnaire for chronic diseases.

“…For example, helplessness has been assessed with disease-specific scales for various chronic diseases (e.g., Flor, Behle, & Birbaumer, 1993; Nicassio, Wallston, Callahan, Herbert, & Pincus, 1985; M. Watson et al, 1988) or with traitlike measures of general hopelessness–helplessness constructs (e.g., Beck, Weissman, Lester, & Trexler, 1974; Millon, Green, & Meagher, 1982). Similarly, acceptance has been assessed with disease-specific scales for patients with disabilities, chronic pain, or HIV (e.g., Felton & Revenson, 1984; Linkowski, 1971; McCracken, 1998; Thompson et al, 1994) and with general coping questionnaires (e.g., Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989).…”

Comparison of Adaptations and Compliance to Exercise Training between Middle‐Aged and Older Men

“…Psychologic Evaluation Prior to the exercise test at 0, 3, and 6 months of training, the subject completed the Millon Behavioral Health Inventory, 11 the Profile of Mood States, 12 and the Jenkins Activity Survey 13 …”

Cancer pain management: Implications for psychologists

“…The following instruments have been normed with medical/cancer patient populations (psychometric properties can be found in the instrument development article of each inventory listed below). Millon, Green, & Meagher, 1982): measures medically-related concerns such as compliance and pain treatment responsiveness. This scale is beneficial for treatment team members to better understand personality characteristics that can have a direct impact on treatment outcomes; Millon Behavioral Medicine Diagnostic (MBMD;Millon, Antoni, Millon, & Davis, 2003): measures psychosocial variables such as coping style, the presence of psychiatric conditions, communication style, as well as current health behaviour patterns;…”